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Learn a new language at your own pace

For most of us, full or even part-time education is unrealistic, thus narrowing the options to night classes or self-teaching. In the past that would have meant cassette tapes and books. Not any more.

Babbel.com is an award-winning, online programme that uses modern educational methodology and state-of-the-art technology to make learning a language easy. The concept is based on quick, bite-size lessons presented in an entertaining visual style. You’re engaged by visual flash cards, screen prompts and aural repetition. It’s the clever way to train the brain.

Launched in Berlin in 2008 by a group of educationalists and software developers, Babbel now extends to 13 languages including Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Swedish and English. All content has been developed by a team of foreign language teachers and native speakers.

It’s available both on web and as an app and currently boasts over 16 million users. Registration is free so you can sign up for a quick taster session. Thereafter it costs £8.95 a month, £17.85 for three months or £29.70 for six months to gain full access to the courses.

Take a beginners course if you’re starting from scratch or refresh your knowledge, learn grammar and take special business versions in German or English if you want to make a good impression. There’s even a new culinary course for those who want to know the difference between Manchego viejo and curado.

Working online or via mobile means you have the flexibility to study any time. Babbel Mobile for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android means you can use time that might have otherwise been wasted – such as commuting – productively. The app is free to download and lets you create a database to expand your vocabulary. The Babbel apps contain 2,000–3,000 vocabulary words per language, accompanied by images and pronounced by native speakers.

The big strides are to be made online – here there are more than 6,500 hours of content accessible through rich, innovative and entertaining teaching modules.

As you complete lessons, you'll see green rectangles fill in on an overall progress tracking bar on your account dashboard. As you advance through the program, new modules reveal themselves so you’re always moving forward.

As you progress you will tackle grammatical concepts and verb conjugation tutorials while the voice recognition system means you can practise pronouncing the words without fear of anyone mocking your mangling of their language.

Babbel has its own social network too, meaning you can try out and improve your new-found language skills within its userbase of over seven million around the world. Find someone to learn with – or simply meet someone interesting via the chat feature, with messages or on the message board.

Sign up to Babbel and start learning a new language. It’s a great way of keeping your mind active and it’s practical, too. In fact, it could open up a whole new world.